Page 78 of Mafia And Taken

I stomped over to the dresser and dug through the drawers to find some suitable clothing. While I rummaged through the drawers, I noticed Alessio frowning as I messed up his neat, color-coded piles of clothes. I knew I was rummaging harder than necessary, deliberately making more of a mess than normal.

Once we were both dressed, Alessio grabbed my hand and led me down the stairs and out into the grounds of the villa. I dragged my heels—I really wasn’t in the mood to do this.

He started off at a slow jog and I fell into pace beside him. It was warm even at this time of the morning. He was right—there was no way I would go for a run later when it got even hotter.

Normally I would listen to music when I ran but given that I didn’t have my music with me, there was nothing I could do except run in silence—there was no way that I was going to talk to Alessio just to fill in the quiet. Anyway, I needed to concentrate to keep up with Alessio in the heat. I wasn’t used to running in this sort of temperature, and I could feel the sweat dripping down my back and trickling between my breasts.

I was soon out of breath and saw Alessio look across at me.

“Do you need to take a break, cara?”

I didn’tneedto take a break, although I sure wanted to—but I definitely wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of admitting that I was struggling as the morning sun beat down on us. I shook my head at him, not wasting my precious breaths on using words. Just saying that I wanted to take a break while running seemed to me like I would be admitting to a weakness.

I don’t know why I found it so hard to admit my vulnerabilities to people. It felt easier to shut people out, to carry on by myself—that way I couldn’t be let down by anyone.

Alessio set a solid pace and after running a circuit around the villa’s grounds, he set course down the steps to the private beach, finishing when we reached the water’s edge.

The breeze gently blowing off the sea was a welcome relief, and I gratefully accepted the water bottle he held out to me.

“So, did you enjoy that?” he asked me, stripping off his white t-shirt. This was the first time I had seen him in a color other than black or a dark tone, I thought to myself, although he still had a revolver tucked into the waistband of his shorts, plus his knife holster strapped on his thigh.

He was always prepared for whatever might happen—everything in his life was meticulously planned and I doubted he ever got up in the morning and just pulled on the first clothes he laid his hands on. He liked to be in control and planned everything with military-like precision.

“Enjoy isn’t the right word…although it did make me feel a bit better,” I admitted, as I sat on the fine, white sand, gulping down the water and looking out at the rich blue of the sea.

“Good, that’s all I want.” He sat down beside me and leaned back on his elbows, enjoying the view before us as we sat in comfortable silence.

After a while, he stood up and held out his hand to me, and for once, I let him help me as I wearily got to my feet.

“You confuse the hell out of me,” I blurted out.

Alessio cocked his head to one side as he regarded me. “Look, I told you I like you. I know you like me as well. So why the hell are we playing games?”

I didn’t know how to answer him. I couldn’t understand the dark magnetism that was pulling us together.

“I want to see what you and I could be, cara. We’re standing here right now, and all I want to do is kiss you. That’s the honest truth.”

I sighed. “It’s just…I don’t know.” And it was true. I didn’t know why I was always fighting him, but I also didn’t know what I really wanted.

Without warning, he pulled me in for a kiss, firmly gripping the back of my head with his large hand but pressing his lips to me ever so softly.

The kiss was at complete odds with his strength and the raw masculinity that was coming off him in stormy waves. I could smell his soap and a trace of sandalwood under the scent of his clean sweat, reminding me of how he smelled when we had sex that night after swimming in the pool.

My fingers clung to the tops of his muscled arms, feeling the slick sweat on his bare skin. I felt lightheaded as his tongue lightly teased mine and I told myself it must be the heat of the sun that was making me feel this way.

It was just a short, sweet kiss, for once making no demands of me. I didn’t understand this man. At times like now, I could see myself falling for him—for the softer man behind the harsh mask of the Made Man.

It was incomprehensible to me that I could feel this way about him after everything he had done, including the implant. At times like this, I could imagine us being happy together and even having children together. What he had done with the implant had angered me, but now part of me thought about what it would be like to have children with him and to build a family with him.

He was protective of me in his own warped way. He made me feel cared for and always wanted to spend time with me. More significantly, he let me call Nonna every morning now—he understood how important this was to me and how much my grandmother meant to me. If he really was a monster, and if he really did want to punish me for my father’s sins, surely he wouldn’t allow me to make these calls?

No matter how busy he was with work and business, he always seemed to put me first, thinking of little things like running me a bath with scented oils or giving me a massage to relax me.

The only demand he made of me was that I participated every day in this world he had woven for us—in this land of make-believe, where I was his willing wife and the past hadn’t happened.

I wondered what might have happened between us if we had just met like a normal guy and a normal girl? Would I have fallen for him? Would I have been able to see past his darkness, past the Made Man in him, and instead have embraced all the good things in him—the good things that were drawing me to him now, making me yearn for his touch and for something more between us.

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